The Wind howled as Serena drove through the mountain roads leading to her home village. The sky was a bleak gray, and every turn twisted her stomach tighter.
Rose's call had shaken her, the panic in her best friend's voice still echoing in her ears. Something terrible had happened. She could feel it in her bones.
But she didn't want to believe it. She didn't want to imagine something could have happened to her family. They were the only people she had left.
The tires crunched over gravel as she pulled into the driveway of the family home. But the house wasn't how she remembered it. The front door hung off its hinges, claw marks shredded across the wood. Blood smeared the porch, dried dark and brown. Her heart nearly stopped.
"Father!" Serena shouted, bolting from the car.
"Mother.! Answer me please, anyone."
The inside of the house looked like a battlefield. Furniture was overturned, the scent of death thick in the air. She gagged, pressing a hand over her mouth as she stepped over broken glass and splintered wood. Her knees gave out and she fell to the floor.
Rose came running from the neighboring house. Her clothes stained with blood, eyes swollen from crying.
"Serena," Rose knelt beside her, pulling her into her arms.
"They... they killed them. The Alpha. The Luna. Mom. Dad... they're gone. They're all gone," Rose whispered.
Serena went still. The words felt like knives slicing through her chest.
"Who did this?" she asked, voice brittle.
"Who did this…!! Noooo!!! Mom, Dad."
She got up and ran to her parents' dead bodies.
"They are still warm. We can still do something about this. Please let's not give up. Okay mom? Okay dad?." She said holding her mom and she turned to Rose,
"Call the ambulance.! Now..!!"
Rose couldn't speak and only let tears fall down, " There's nothing more we can do. Most of the adults who were home were killed. I'm sure they were not ready. But someone saw one of them."
"Who was it?" she cried out.
"Cruz. He came with some werewolves who had gone rogue. They came out of nowhere. Like shadows. So fast, they couldn't even shift in time," Rose said, her voice hollow.
"Rumor has it there was a vampire among them." She continued.
"Weren't they all destroyed and the rest sent far away from humans."
"I have no idea Serena." Rose said as she wiped the mucus running down from her nose.
Serena stood slowly, her fists clenched. The air around her vibrated with rage. She made her way through the house toward the backyard, where the remaining pack members had gathered in mourning.
Bodies were wrapped in white linen, laid out with flowers and candles. The scent of blood still lingered in the earth.
An Elder who survived, an old and hunched wolf with silver hair, stepped forward with a heavy heart. His eyes met Serena's.
"The Alpha left a command before his final breath," he said.
Serena's breath caught.
"He named you his successor. You are to lead the pack. You are our new Alpha."
Gasps echoed around her. Her lips parted, but no words came out.
"Me? No. I can't even defend myself in a fight . I don't even… I'm not even…"
"He chose you because he believed in you. Because you have fire, wisdom, and strength in your heart. The bloodline demands it," The elder said.
The remaining pack members bowed their heads in submission. Rose clutched her arm.
"You can do this," she whispered. "You're all we have."
The sun dipped below the horizon, casting long shadows over the broken village. The coronation would take place under the moon.
That evening, Serena stood by the sacred stone altar in the woods, clothed in white. Torches burned in a circle around the pack. A fire crackled at the center, and Ada raised a chalice of water from the Moonwell.
"Under the light of the goddess, we anoint Serena Vale, daughter of Alpha and Luna Vale, the chosen of the Alpha, blood of our blood, protector of the pack, bearer of the mark."
He poured the water over her head, and the ground trembled faintly. Serena's skin warmed as a faint silver light danced across her arms, her bloodline awakening in her veins.
"I know her path is uncertain. I will guide her," Ada continued
The legendary Seer. A woman cloaked in black and silver, her eyes clouded but powerful.
"You were born to lead, Serena. You will rebuild the pack. I know it," Ada said, touching her forehead gently.
Serena looked at the crowd before her. Broken. Frightened. But hopeful. And they were looking up to her now. Not just as Serena. But as Alpha.
"We fight. We rebuild. We honor the blood of our fallen," she declared as tears ran down her cheeks.
The pack was not supposed to go past a night without an Alpha. So if the Alpha died, one had to be crowned the same day. It was too much for Serena but she went on with it.
Rumors and questions went about the crowd as to how she could become an Alpha with no direct blood of werewolf. But no one dared to speak aloud as she had become alpha. Lily watched the new Alpha in pain and sorrow as she had lost her parents and friends.
The pack howled together, a mourning cry that rippled into the night sky.
Days passed. Rebuilding began. But the weight of leadership fell heavily on Serena's shoulders. The pack was weak, their defenses broken. The treasury that had once funded the village, the security, the medicine, was nearly empty. The rogue attack had not only stolen lives—it had stolen their future.
Inside the Alpha House, Serena pored over ledgers and financial reports late into the night. She sighed, rubbing her temple.
"We're bleeding money. There's not enough to feed everyone next month, let alone build new defenses," she murmured.
Ada sat across the table, serene as ever. "Hard choices lie ahead. But you are not alone."
Rose entered the room with a file. Her face was pale.
"Serena... our allies. They're pulling out. No more supply lines. They say we're a risk."
Serena looked down at the file. Her hands trembled.
"They think we'll fall."
She looked up at Ada.
"What do we do?"
She asked as her heart raced.
Ada was silent.
In the darkness beyond the walls of their territory, danger watched and waited.
And as Serena stepped outside into the cold night, she heard something else.
A low growl from the trees.
A scent she knew too well.
Dominic Reign.
He was watching her.
And for the
first time, she could see the golden gleam in his eyes as they flickered to wolf form.
He wasn't human.
He never was.